20/9/17 – ALDI has installed a close to 1 megawatt (MW) rooftop solar system at its Distribution Centre in Brendale, QLD. This is the largest solar system installed by ALDI Australia and is sufficient to cover ALDI’s daytime power requirements on a sunny day. It’s also one of the largest solar systems on a single roof by anyone across Australia. This significant investment in solar builds upon a successful commercial solar pilot program carried out by Epho Pty Ltd for ALDI in 2016, which involved installations on numerous stores in NSW and VIC.

The 1MW solar rooftop on the Brendale Distribution Centre required 20km of cabling and over 3,400 panels. The panels cover just over half a hectare (5,680 square meters or 9% coverage) on the Distribution Centre rooftop. The solar energy generated each year will be over 1,454,300 kilowatt hours or 1,454 megawatt hours. This means that the amount of solar energy would be sufficient to power over 270 QLD homes each year. Also, the amount of carbon the ALDI 1MW system will offset is equal to planting over 30,000 trees or taking 422 cars off the road each year.

“To meet ALDI’s stringent requirements and maintain its award-winning customer experience, each ALDI installation needed to happen in a ‘ghost-like’ manner with minimal disturbance to the normal operation to ALDI’s business,” said Mr Butterworth. “The 1MW project allowed Epho to demonstrate every facet of our turnkey solar power solution to our customer, from project management, to stakeholder management, engineering and operations as well as work health and safety.”

“Solar power is a perfect fit for supermarkets and these large commercial solar systems can supply a significant chunk of the electricity needs for stores and distribution centres with free and clean renewable energy for years to come,” said Dr Oliver Hartley, Epho’s Managing Director.

“Epho was selected for these ALDI projects because we have the competence and responsiveness required by large corporates like ALDI to deliver seamless projects in live operating environments. With the pilot stores and the 1 MW Distribution Centre in QLD, one of Australia’s largest rooftop solar projects, ALDI is well placed to drive a renewable energy powered revolution in the retailer industry across Australia,” said Oliver.